A Spy by Nature - Charles Cumming [98]
Katharine looks away.
‘Thank you.’
I feel bad now, like I’ve gone too far. The chill of the water is again starting to take hold.
‘What if there’s no opportunity to get to the case during dinner?’
‘Most probably there will be, Alec, if you put it somewhere smart,’ Fortner says, with a hint of irritation. ‘If we can’t do it safely, we won’t do it at all. And if that happens, just take the case home and bring it to us some other time. But just remember one thing…’ He brings his hand out of the water to make his point firmly and with great care. ‘Nobody is expecting you to do what you’re doing. That’s the beauty of it. Nobody’s watching us any more. That should help to calm any nerves you might have.’
I do not answer this, merely nod my head.
‘That’s settled then,’ he says, crouching down until the water is up to his neck. Katharine does the same. ‘Just leave the case in the hall of Saul’s apartment. We’ll take care of the rest. It’s gonna be real easy. Now let’s do some laps.’
It has started to rain as we make our way through the lobby doors and out on to Chichester Street. A strong wind is blowing along the face of the building and it catches on the trapped globs of water inside my ears. I shiver with sudden cold and Katharine comments on how quickly the summer has passed. Fortner tells us to stay indoors while he fetches the car, so we head back inside and sit down.
Katharine immediately leans forward and adopts the manner of a concerned friend. She wants to get back that closeness we had, that shared understanding with which I was first ensnared.
‘Alec, it’s difficult for you, I know,’ she says. ‘You wanna do everything right by Fortner, you don’t want to let him down. But all this must be quite a shock for you. You sure you don’t have any concerns?’
‘Of course,’ I tell her with a confident smile. ‘I’m completely OK about it.’
‘You sure?’ she says, ‘Because back there in the pool you seemed a little spaced out, a little tense.’
It’s bad that she thought this.
‘Not at all, no. I was just a bit apprehensive about using Saul’s flat. You know, the friend thing.’
‘We can change that if you want.’
‘It’s fine. It makes sense. I’ve thought about it now. Don’t worry.’
‘You sure? Because you know you can always come to me if there’s a problem.’
And with this she reaches across to touch my sleeve, her fingers pushing against my wrist.
‘I’m sure,’ I tell her, looking away.
Clearly this is how they will proceed from now on: the pattern has been set. Fortner will handle the business end of things while Katharine takes care of the emotional side, coddling me whenever I am beset by doubt. It’s pointless, of course, to confide in her, for my every word will be reported back to him for careful analysis. All of my conversations, no matter who they are with, have this quality of evasion about them. They are significant not for what is said in the everyday to and fro of mutual trickery, but rather for what is left unspoken. It’s all about hidden meanings, reading between the lines, teasing out the subtext. This is where the skill resides.
The first handover, for example, is not about the leaking of sensitive information: its true purpose is subtler than that. Katharine and Fortner set it up with such ease in the pool because they know that a duplicate of our commercial price sets is of no more use to them than a copy of The Economist. The true value of the exchange at Saul’s flat lies in giving JUSTIFY a dummy run. Katharine and Fortner want to see how effectively I can operate within our new arrangement: whether, in the heat of the action, I become sloppy, forgetful, thrown by nerves. More crucially, it is essential from their point of view that I commit an act of industrial espionage - however slight - as soon as possible. That will bind me into the treachery and give them leverage with which to threaten me should I, at a later date, develop cold feet.
Fortner pulls up in the car outside and Katharine moves towards the door. Then, just as I am standing up to leave, Cohen’s girlfriend walks into the